310 NATATORES. QUERQUEDULA. 



honey-yellow, with a greenish tinge. Legs and toes 

 orange. 



PLATE 50 *. The Female, also of the natural size. 

 Female. Head and neck dirty cream-yellow, with numerous streaks 

 of brown, which are darkest upon the crown. Chin 

 and throat pale buff. Upper parts umber-brown, of 

 different shades, with the feathers margined with cream- 

 coloured white. Lesser wing-coverts pale hair-brown, 

 tinged with grey. Speculum purplish-blue, passing in- 

 to velvet-black, with the tips of the feathers white. 

 Quills pale hair-brown. Breast and under parts yel- 

 lowish-brown, spotted and streaked with darker brown. 

 Legs orange. 



The young males resemble the females till after the au- 

 tumnal moult. 



GENUS QUERQUEDULA, RAY. TEAL. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



BILL as long as the head, elevated at the base, strait, 

 semi-cylindrical, nearly of equal breadth throughout; tip 

 obtuse, with the dertrum or nail small and hooked; man- 

 dibles laminated, and having the laminae almost entirely con- 

 cealed by the deflected margins of the upper mandible. Na- 

 sal fosse small, lateral, near to the culmen of the bill. Nos- 

 trils oval, pervious. 



Wings acute, with the first and second quills of nearly 

 equal length. 



Tail wedge-shape'd, with the two middle feathers more or 

 less elongated, and acute. , 



Legs having the tarsus rather shorter than the middle toe. 

 Feet with four toes, three before and one behind ; the front 

 ones webbed; the hind toe small and free. 



